After the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (opens new window) successfully applied for the ability to register marriage celebrants last year, their first celebrant has now been approved (opens new window). Karen Martyn is willing to travel to anywhere in the country to perform a pastafarian wedding ceremony.

The serious point of these efforts, including Russell in Christchurch's driver's license where he's wearing a colander, is to point out the inequality of religious privilege in New Zealand. other countries where people have IDs wearing a colander include Australia, the US, Belgium, Czech Republic and Russia.

Here's a pastafarian wedding at Burning Man in the US:

The idea was created by Bobby Henderson in 2005, who wrote a letter protesting the teaching of intelligent design in Kansas schools. He argued that his idea of a flying spaghetti monster fiddling with radiocarbon dating results was as valid and believable as ID, and deserved equal teaching time. The next year, a new school board was voted in and the changes reversed.

There is a book available called "The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster"

Their beliefs are:

• Flying Spaghetti Monster created the universe "after drinking heavily"
• Beer volcano and stripper factory in heaven
• Humans evolved from pirates, not primates
• A lack of pirates is causing global warming
• Fridays are holy days
• Main religious holiday is called "Holiday"